Friday 2 November 2007

DRACULA IN ISTANBUL/Drakula Istanbul'da (1953)

I first read about this film in the pages of "Famous Monsters of Filmland" and later impressed a Turkish friend by actually having heard of it and being able to name the star! I suppose that like many films I never expected to actually see DRACULA IN ISTANBUL has found a special place in my heart. The copy I finally managed to get hold of is pretty poor quality, looking like a third or fourth generation video from a television broadcast. It is just possible that this and the lack of sub-titles have coloured my perception of the film. Luckily, the plot, for most of the film, follows Stoker's original novel but that doesn't make the viewing any more enjoyable. DRACULA IN ISTANBUL is hard to get enthusiastic about for any reason. Poor sets, pretty poor acting and overlong (it seemed to go on for hours) with direction by Mehmet Muhtar which is virtually non existent. As I've said, my copy was pretty poor but I doubt if a better one would change my opinion. Atif Kaptan (according to the Imdb this was his only horror film) is as wooden in the role of Dracula as his coffin. Rating *



1 comment:

Cerpts said...

Ha ha ha! You're welcome! But at least "I told you so". Pretty heavy going but I'm still glad I got a chance to see it. At least it wasn't as bad as Forrest Gump, though. . .